Earlier this year in January, I was fortunate enough to be selected, along with 20 or so other students, to spend a month in Rome studying art history (plus a few days in Siena and Florence). The subject was titled Renaissance and Baroque Rome, and was led by David Marshall, Lisa Beaven and John Weretka - their depth of knowledge was both endless and inspiring. It was a truly amazing and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Additionally, we got to see buildings and artworks that previously only existed in pages of history books - all those art and architectural history lectures came alive, it was absolutely overwhelming. It was a bit daunting at first, being an architecture student surrounded by art history students ... it was different, and exciting. The amount I have learned from the trip, I can talk about for days, but I will spare you that conversation (for now!).

Here are some photographs from the study tour (our own version of the Grand Tour, perhaps?) - I think I will only post up several photographs per post, more Rome posts to come. Let's have a look at St Peter's and Bernini's magnificent piazza (Bernini's architecture at its best I think! Actually, I consider it more a sculpture than architecture - sculptural architecture (?), to be honest) this time: